Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) would operate 7200 special buses for the Sankranti festival. Its managing director Dwaraka Tirumala Rao said these would be operational from January 8 to 20.
These buses would ferry passengers to various places in the state as also the neighbouring Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
“All these special buses, in addition to the regular services, are operating on normal fares. We would run 3,900 special bus services before the festival, of which, 2,153 will be to Hyderabad,” he said.
The number of special buses for Bangalore is 375, Chennai 42, Vijayawada 300, Visakhapatnam 250, Rajamahendravaram230, Tirupati 50 and other areas 500. Subsequently, 3,300 special bus services would be operated on return journeys.
Rao said special bus services before the festival would run from January 8 to 13. “We are ready to run special services on the return trips from January 16 to 20,” he said.
The advanced reservations have been completed for all the regular services. Hence the special services to meet the passengers' rush during the festival period. Advanced reservation facilities would be provided for the special bus services too, he said.
Nodal officers in the ranks of depot managers, senior officers and traffic managers would be deputed in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and other depots to monitor the special bus services and to coordinate with the passengers at different depots. Passengers can book their tickets in advance through www.apsrtconline.in, through the booking agents or through the APSRTC mobile app.
The passengers booking to and fro journey tickets will get a 10 per cent discount on bus base fare. Also, a 24x7 call centre 149 or 0866-2570005 would be set up for disseminating information on the special services. All the festival special buses would be provided with GPS tracking systems.
Many state governments have sent their representatives to study the APSRTC's implementation of policies to improve the OR ratio on their RTC buses, he claimed.
